Everything Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said during Tuesday's press conference

Tennessee offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle met with reporters Tuesday, looking back at the 29-16 loss to Florida on Saturday night:

How he assesses the play of Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton at Florida and where he needs to be better moving forward

“Joe was really good. His decision making, his calmness on the sidelines. He kept the calm within the storm out there, talking to him on the headset. Man, he was after every single drive, he was like, all right, cool, like, move on. What we gotta coming next? So the guy’s really even keeled , his decision-making is really good, was accurate with the football. The guy played a good game, was happy with that. Obviously we can always be better. We can be pushing for our communication, for how we all get on the same page in an environment like that when it’s harder to hear and it’s not the friendly confines. So that’s where we can keep pushing to grow. But his overall game management was very good.”

Joe Milton getting Tennessee’s offense lined up and ready to operate in an hostile road environment like that, if he plays a part in pre-snap penalties

“Well, that’s the thing, getting guys out, the way we play, you gotta get yourself lined up. You gotta play fast. We’re not breaking the huddle and he’s not telling everybody where to go. You gotta see a signal, get your cleats on the ground. At the quarterback position though, it is what it is, right? When that’s not operating at a high level, we have to take it upon ourselves to make it operate at a high level and whatever that is in that moment. One of the things with being up in the box, you can’t necessarily get a feel for what is going on actually on the field with the guys. Like, what is the look in the eye? What is the demeanor of our guys? So that’s the thing that the quarterback has got to be able to like, all right, let me settle everything down. If we need to switch from a verbal to a silent, help us make that call. If you feel like that’s what you need. And he did that. That’s just a thing that we probably got to a drive or two too late.”

Tennessee WR Dont’e Thornton’s impact through three games, what is holding him back at this point

“He is a freak athletically, let’s start off with that. His size and speed combination. What we do is different. And sometimes there’s a learning curve. You’ve seen it before, like saw Jalin Hyatt, Year 1. Year 2 was different. You saw Dont’e Saturday night make some big plays down the field. He got some balls on the edge and made a guy miss and had got us a nice play back on track when we were behind schedule. So you’re seeing him grow. And what I love about Dont’e is his attitude hasn’t shifted. He hasn’t gone into, well, I’m not getting the production I want. So now I’m mad. All he’s doing is trying to figure out how do I get more production? What do I do? What do I need to learn? What more do I need to watch? He’s been meeting extra, like as much as anybody, like a freshman. So that’s what’s great about him and I expect his productivity to continue to grow as we go through the season.”

Why Tennessee’s offensive tempo hasn’t been as fast this season as the last two years

“Well, you talk specifically Saturday, it was getting behind the chains. It is what it is. Well now you gotta create, you’re playing from two drive start type plays, if you know what I’m saying. You gotta do something to start the drive. Well now I gotta start the drive basically over again, so I gotta slow it back down, move a body, use a motion, bring somebody in, move somebody out. When you start doing that, it just naturally slows everything down. There’s like a ripple effect of now on second, instead of first and 10, you’re first and 15, so you gain six. You’re not in second or short where you got what you want. You’re in second-and-long, so now you’re working in the third-and-mediums instead long. There’s more moving parts when you go to that too because now you’ve got four, you gotta change your protection based on the stuff that they’re bringing. So it’s really a ripple effect on the front. And usually if we’re slowing down later, it’s because we’ve done something to shoot ourselves in the foot earlier in the drive and that what happened Saturday night.”

The Tennessee run game not being as productive at Florida as it was the first two weeks

“We hit some big plays in it. Jaylen Wright ran hard. It was fun to watch those backs. They run hard. It’s the same thing, you get behind the chains, all of a sudden those gains of four don’t feel as good on first-and-20. They’re really good on first-and-10, now you feel like you can feed more runs in there. Well, now you feel like you gotta push the ball out on the perimeter and push it down the field a little bit to stay out a third-and-long. So I think it’s just the sum of all the parts like that, very similar to his question, you get yourself backed up early in the drive, it’s hard to get into a rhythm.

“Run game is a rhythm, pass game is a rhythm. If you’re slowing up, moving fast, slowing down, moving fast, slowing down over and over, man, it’s hard for the backs, that O-line, to get into a rhythm of how do we move these guys off the ball? You’re getting the fresh front every single time. You’re getting the chance to stop, look over, get their call, get their cleats to the ground sometimes. So they’re getting a much fresher front the whole time. And that’s just on us handling our business on the front end of the drive.”

If there are any inefficiencies in the Tennessee offense that would be improved with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback, based on what he has seen in practice

“No … because it’s operation. Joe’s operating at a really high level.”

Tennessee wide receivers playing better at Florida than they had played the first two weeks

“I think once again, similar to the question about Dont’e, this is very much a rhythm offense. With what we do, how we operate, with the tempo, with the splits, you’re still seeing (it). Joe’s played a decent amount of football here, so Bru (McCoy), Ramel (Keyton), Squirrel (White), but they hadn’t been in a unit for that long. And if you think back to a couple years ago, it was same thing that unit was. It just takes a little bit to get it where it needs to be. Now obviously we’re always pushing to make that happen as fast as possible. You want it to be Week 1 and it just lights on fire the rest of the season. But that group has pushed really hard to become a unit because that’s what it has to be to operate efficiently. It was still a bunch of guys learning each other early in the season. I think what you saw was a group that wasn’t affected by the moment. Because they played in those type of moments before and they were able to operate at a really bad level.”

If it has been difficult to balance Tennessee’s running back rotation, with Dylan Sampson not playing in the loss at Florida

“No, it hadn’t been. Saturday night, obviously Dylan didn’t get enough on the field. It is what it is, for whatever reason. He knows what we think of him. You know what everybody thinks him that’s an electric guy with the ball in his hands. Find ways to get that guy the ball, whether it’s handing it to him, throwing it to him, using him in the screen game, whatever it is. That’s a guy that has to have the ball in his hands.”

Bru McCoy’s development and how he has impressed so far this season

“Bru runs the ball like a big back, that’s how he runs the ball out on the edge. He’s a guy that has that combination. He can stretch people vertically, but at his size and strength and the mentality that it plays with. He’s a great guy. Just get the ball in his hand right now and just let him find creases, almost like a punt return and go run. So for Bru it’s not really like, what do we do with him? It’s like, man, what don’t you want to do with that guy? You want to give him the ball early in the games, let him set the tone. He’s actually a good guy to get in the blocking game early. Let him get his hands on some of those corners that he’s bigger than and kind of set the tone on those guys as well. So he’s got a rare combination of that size and strength and the mentality of playing the wide receiver position that a lot of guys don’t have, that he lets you do a bunch of stuff like that.”

Tennessee’s offensive inefficiency on the road and how those problems get fixed

“Yeah, it’s the same answer. If you’re shooting yourself in the foot before the ball is snapped, it’s hard to get any kind of efficiency going whatsoever because efficient plays are no longer efficient plays. Efficient plays keep you out of second and long. Well, you have an efficient play on first-and-15, that’s five yards. You’re still in second-and-long, so you’re playing from behind the chain right from the jump. It’s hard to get yourself out of that. Now, what we have to do as a staff and the players on the field, when that happens, everyone’s settled down. That doesn’t mean it has to happen on the next drive. And if it had to on two drives, it doesn’t have to happen on the third drive. Reset, settle down, fall into the game and we know how to do this. We know how to operate. You saw it Saturday night in the second half when we stopped doing that. It was just boom, boom, boom, bump right down the field. Then we had some issues inside the red zone that held us out of the end zone.”

What he has seen from the Tennessee receivers that makes him believe they’ll reach their potential as a group this season

“I think they’re a group of guys that works really hard. They’re intelligent, they’re athletic and they want it really bad. So I have no concern that we’re gonna operate at a high level in the passing game. They’ve done a bunch of really good stuff, like you watch them practice, like those guys are flying around the field. It’s a really good thing to see. That’s why as a staff, like there’s never been, alright, what do we do about this? It is coming along, we’re getting there. We need to get there faster. That’s on us. But I have no doubt in my mind that this is gonna come together at a high level.”